$1.58M grant will put health clinics inside Zanesville and Maysville high schools

ZANESVILLE − Zanesville and Maysville high schools will soon have health clinics inside their buildings for medical, dental and women’s health services after each received an Appalachian Community Grant.Maysville received $283,000 while Zanesville received $1.3 million.Each clinic will be staffed with a nurse practitioner, an LPN and a mental health specialist.“Basically, we operate as an office inside their building,” said Rick Fulkerson, chief administrative officer of Muskingum Valley Health Centers, whose agency has been partnering with several local school districts including Zanesville and Maysville with the School Link and mobile health unit programs. “Integration is what really makes it work.”According to Fulkerson, the School Link program literally links high schools with one of MVHC’s nearby clinics, but that can be problematic.“Transportation is still a hurdle with that set up,” said Fulkerson. “Our mobile unit eliminates transportation issues, but then creates a barrier to access, since the units are only available at certain times.”Being fully integrated into the buildings and working hand-in-hand with the school nurse is what makes the program really work.“It’s basically an urgent care located inside the school building,” Fulkerson said, adding that staff and students alike have access to the elevated healthcare. “Not only are we exposing kids to healthcare early on, so they learn how to get proper care and take care of themselves, but we’re also eliminating barriers to care. One of which is working parents. Now parents don’t have to leave to work to take a child to the doctor. The doctor is in the building.”The Appalachian Community Grant Program was instituted in 2022 by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik in conjunction with the Ohio General Assembly.The overall program funneled $500 million into Ohio’s 32-county Appalachian region to transform these communities through economic development projects. The Zanesville and Maysville in-house clinic projects were recipients of the Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative money under the Appalachian Community Grant Program.“It’s a vital service. We see higher attendance and better overall physical and mental health (because of these MVHC health programs),” said Maysville Superintendent Brian Blum. “The governor being able to put this much money aside to help us, it’s like he singled out Maysville and asked how he could help. That’s how it feels to us.”The clinics are not free to students and staff, but they also don’t turn anyone away.“We take all insurances,” said Fulkerson. “But if a family doesn’t have resources or insurance, we will find a way to help them.”The Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative is a more than $64M investment that includes dozens of projects to improve access to healthcare in 36 communities across 20 Appalachian counties in Ohio. It is the largest investment in school-based health services in the state of Ohio.